


Never Stood A Chance

by WolffyLuna



Category: The Magnus Archives
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gerard Keay 'Lives', Dark!Jonathan Sims, Gen, Post-The Unknowing (The Magnus Archives)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:21:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24819064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolffyLuna/pseuds/WolffyLuna
Summary: There is a flash of rage over Gerard Keay’s face, that quickly fades to resignation.Written for the dialogue prompt: "I never stood a chance, did I?"
Relationships: Gerard Keay & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Kudos: 30





	Never Stood A Chance

There is a flash of rage over Gerard Keay’s face, that quickly fades to resignation.

Jon feels the knowledge lapping at his ankles, unbidden: the way death and poor translation dulls all feeling except pain, and the fact that Gerard has been resigned to pain a long time. The rawness of slow healing burns, the endless headaches he should have paid more mind to– being bound to the book is a more all encompassing, existential pain, but it is still something one can become resigned too.

“I never stood a chance, did i? I’m a book, and you’ve got the Beholding’s claws wrapped right around you.”

“I– tried,” Jon says, the truth, the guilt, coming out of his throat like a burr. “I ran out of time, and– well, you said yourself. The apocalypse wouldn’t mean much to you. You’re–” _a book, a repository of knowledge, an inanimate object, a set of statements all bundled together that he could just reach out **and take**_ “–dead already.”

Gerard watches him. To describe his gaze as cool would be inaccurate. He looks at him like he knows every unsaid thing whirling in Jon’s mind, and is deeply unimpressed. Jon doesn’t know if that interpretation is accurate, if Gerard can actually read him that way, or if he has become too attuned to the idea of being watched and evaluated.

“And I was going to kill you, I was–” He breathes. Steels himself. “There are more Rituals coming. I have to stop them.”

Gerry raises an eyebrow. “And you think I will help you.”

The waters deepen. “I _know_ you will.”


End file.
